Cooking 101: Penne with Shrimp & Red Sauce

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I love anything with pasta, but especially shrimp! This is the EASIEST meal to pull together and VERY healthy too. Penne recipe below.

In my meal plan this week we had this meal, Penne with shrimp and spicy red sauce, green salad with shredded carrots and garlic bread (leftover breadmaker whole wheat bread from Tuesday night).

So here is how to pull it together.

1. 1 hour before dinner: Thaw shrimp by putting in a collander and spraying cold water over it. Let it sit and thaw completely.
2. Cook penne or pasta: You can use any kind of pasta here, but go ahead and cook about 20 minutes before you want to eat.
3. Make salad dressing and prep bread: While the water is boiling, I make salad dressing bottom of bowl (2T olive oil, 1 T red/white/wine vinegar, squirt of dijon, dash sugar, salt and pepper, whisk), put shredded carrots (or any raw veggies) and lettuce on top – toss at table. Butter sliced bread, sprinkle w/ garlic salt and parsley, toast for about 6-10 minutes in toaster oven.
4. Make sauce and cook shrimp: Lastly, make sauce and cook shrimp (recipe below), toss w/ cooked pasta.
5. Enjoy!

* This recipe can be done with any type of pasta, I prefer whole wheat penne, the sauce sticks better.

* You can leave out the red pepper flakes if you are serving with children.

* If you have only diced tomatoes, just put in a food processor (briefly) to have crushed tomatoes. Or, use tomato sauce.

* My kids loved this!

Penne Pasta with Shrimp & Spicy Red Sauce

1/2 lb shrimp, thawed (deveined, deshelled and no tails)
1 T olive oil
2 T minced garlic
1 T red pepper flakes
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 T dried basil (Fresh if you have it)
salt & pepper
1 lb penne pasta
grated parmesean cheese

1. Cook pasta to package directions.
2. Heat oil in medium heat pan, cook garlic and red pepper flakes for 1 minute, add crushed tomatoes, basil and salt/pepper. Simmer on low for about 10 minutes to let the flavors come together.
3. Add shrimp and let it cook for about 3 minutes or until shrimip is pink and in a “c” shape.
4. Toss in same pan w/ drained pasta.
5. Sprinkle LOTS of parmesean on top!

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Recipe developed by Kelly Hancock ©2010 Faithful Provisions. For personal use only. May not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed for capital gain without prior permission from Kelly Hancock.

Tagged as: penne shrimp, spicy red sauce